Head coach Mike Locksley took the podium to talk about the state of the team for the final team heading into the Music City Bowl. Everything that Locksley said about Maryland's QB room, opt outs, implementing NFL technology and more. Opening statement "I want to thank Scott Ramsey and obviously Brian Waller and everyone affiliated with the TransPerfect Music City Bowl for the hospitality we've enjoyed here in Music City in Nashville. It's a first-class bowl in terms of how they treat us, our players, our support staff, our families. Our entire team is really enjoying everything about Nashville other than the hot chicken. We brought a bunch of DBs up to eat hot chicken, and we struggled. But great food, great music, and overall great football city. We've had some great practices over there at Ensworth High School, and we appreciate their hospitality for hosting us as well. Now we're ready for a competitive football game against a really well-coached team in Auburn. I don't know if you know this, Hugh, but my daughter is an Auburn grad. She didn't get a lot of Christmas gifts, but I hope she's not rooting for you if she wants the car payment paid for. No. It will be a great challenge for us. We always considered a bowl game almost like a movie trailer for what next year looks like. When we finished up against Rutgers, that team we had last year was done, and now we're showcasing and kind of that movie trailer when you go see the movie there, and it shows you what the storyline will be. We look at this game as one of those type of games for us because we've got some great energy from our young players that will have opportunities that maybe they didn't have as much as they did this season. We have some older players that are leaving that want to leave the right way. Again, we're excited to see what these young players have to offer as well as the quarterback situation we have. To me, the biggest thing is to come out and build momentum into the '24 season. This will be our third straight bowl game, and we're really looking forward to a great game tomorrow." On his relationship with Auburn HC Hugh Freeze "It started with Coach Saban obviously. Coach Saban has a lot of respect for Hugh as well as myself. The job he did at Ole Miss, I got to Alabama in 2016 and had a chance to go against Hugh's team a few times there. I know Coach Saban had a lot of respect for him. Obviously when I took over as the playcaller, I just remember a nice, long meeting we had and shared some offensive philosophical things. Again, Hugh's been great throughout the process. He's one of those guys that has earned it the right way, man. He started in the high school ranks and worked his way up and has had great success. It's all about relationships. I've gotten to know Hugh really well and one of the guys I respect in this business." On opt-outs, QB battle "Our philosophy is next man up. Once you go through COVID, which we both did, and you wake up and don't know who's going to be available to play, it really taught us some valuable lessons back then. One of the things I've learned over the course of it is these bowl games are great for college football. We took the approach of finishing it the right way with the seniors, but it's a precursor to what the future looks like for Maryland. The opt-outs are part of the game. You've got to keep adjusting, kind of like coaching on offense and defense. Just got to keep making adjustments. Obviously losing a quarterback of Lia's ability and what he's done for Maryland, again, you can't put a price tag on it, but I'm really excited about Billy Edwards and Cam Edge, and those two have been pretty much 2A and 2B throughout the season. They've gotten a ton of reps. They've gotten a lot of bank reps of our systems, and it will be interesting to see how they both perform." On implementing NFL technology for Music City Bowl "In our conference, the Big Ten, we talked about it before the season started. We had our head coaches meetings up in Chicago, and we talked about the Big Ten experimenting in Big Ten games during the season. Because it was so late, we couldn't do it. Then when I heard we had the opportunity to utilize the coach-to-player communication as well as the iPad stuff on the sideline, I called Hugh and said I think at least something we should think about doing because it gives us the chance, if it goes into play next season to see how it works and work out the kinks. It's been great to have for the last couple of weeks in practice. It's a little different. For us, it gave us an opportunity to kind of see how it worked. So it will be interesting to see what advantages it gives us, especially playing young players. I think it will be great for us on Saturday to be able to coach them through games during the course of a game." On honoring former Maryland, Tennessee TE Frank Wycheck "How ironic for us to come to Music City for the first time in our bowl game, and obviously we lost a great Maryland legend in Frank Wycheck, all time leading tight end in the history of Maryland football, the things he was able to accomplish in the NFL, two-time all pro guy that played an integral role in the Music City miracle obviously. We're all saddened by the loss of Frank. He was a guy that was loved by all the different generations of Terps that have come through there because of how he represented us, not just at Maryland, but in the NFL. Definitely I saw some of our alum that live here in the area came by practice and were sharing some fond memories of Frank. We're looking forward to it. We'll wear some decals on our helmets for him in honor of him and what he meant to Maryland. Really excited to kind of represent him the right way here." On his expectations for QB Billy Edwards Jr "It's not much different for Billy. Billy is one of those guys. We've talked a lot about Lia, and as we should because of what he's done, but let's not misrepresent the fact that Billy Edwards has been a driving force in our program as the No. 2 guy. I would think, if you talk to Lia, he played an important role in Lia, in his development as well because of the friendship they had. Billy's practiced really well. There's no dropoff in terms of the type of leadership that he'll provide. He's been throwing the ball really, really well. He's got all of his weapons for the most part, have decided to finish, like you talked about. We spend too much time talking about the guys that are going to opt out, and I think we need to spend more time on the young men that have decided to finish. That's not a knock, we talked about, on guys not deciding to finish because the last game of college football is what it is. But I do think that guys like the Jeshaun Joneses of the world, and those guys who have made the decision to finish, D.J. Glaze has a Senior Bowl invite, will be drafted, Ja'Quan Sheppard, these types of players, those guys are the ones that -- we saw what happened a year ago with Jakorian Bennett coming back to play and being the MVP of the game, I want to make sure we celebrate those guys and what they've been able to accomplish." https://open.spotify.com/episode/2KgPTJdjVjWV5cXQd9iD7y?si=036a85bb6f04463a Related Links
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